


Some People Move On, But Not Us

by StarPrince_Punk



Series: My Irondad and Spiderson Fics [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (god it was hard to type that tag), Angst, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, Hurt Peter Parker, I Made Myself Cry, Morgan Stark wants to help her big brother, Not A Fix-It, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker-centric, Platonic Cuddling, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Sad Peter Parker, WARNING THIS IS REALLY SAD, a little fluff, author grieves by writing fanfiction, but mostly sadness, it's the opposite of a fix-it actually, tony stark is dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-03-08 15:18:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18897283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarPrince_Punk/pseuds/StarPrince_Punk
Summary: “Your dad was one of the best people I’ve ever met, you know?”“Really?”“Yeah. H-He,” Peter wiped the little tears pricking at his eyes, “h-he w-was like, like a father to me.”“So, does that mean, you’re like my big brother?”Peter’s wet eyes met Morgan’s dry, innocent ones. “Uh, well-”“Daddy would sometimes call you my big brother.”---------Peter has cried everyday since Tony Stark... since he... you know. He goes to see Pepper and Morgan for the first time since the funeral, and Morgan tells Peter all the things her dad said about him while he was dusted. Peter just wishes he could hear Tony say those things to him in person.This fic focuses on Peter Parker as he tries to cope with Tony Stark’s death after the events of Avengers: Endgame.Warning: This is REALLY sad. Tony Stark is my favorite Marvel character and this is how I mourned him. I've cried while writing this fic, so don't read this unless you wanna cry too. I apologize in advance lol.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter goes to visit Pepper and Morgan for the first time after the funeral. Peter promised he won't cry in front of them.
> 
> But he does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok this if your final warning. This is a sad fic, not a fix-it. I wrote it while crying over Tony Stark after Endgame. Don't read it unless you wanna cry. However, if you do wanna cry, this is just the fic for you!

Peter stood at the door, staring straight ahead, his mind elsewhere.

He could do this.

Pepper had invited _him_ . He wasn’t getting in their way. She had invited _him_ to see the new house. She decided to move back to New York City after Tony…

After Tony…

She decided to move back to New York City, and now she invited Peter over to see the new house and to look after Morgan while Pepper did some work. It wasn’t that big of a deal.

It wasn’t that big of a deal.

Peter took a deep breath.

He and Morgan had met at the funeral.

 _“Morgan, sweetie,”_ Pepper had introduced them, _“This is Peter Parker. You remember Daddy talking about him, right?”_

Peter’s eyes had been red from crying, but Morgan’s weren’t when she looked up at Peter, smiling. She was so young. Peter thought that maybe she didn’t know exactly what death even was yet. _“Spider-Man?”_

God, Tony had a daughter. And her eyes - wide and brown and expressive, just like Tony’s. _“Yeah, I-I’m Spider-Man. But don’t tell anyone.”_

_“Daddy told me a lot about you!”_

_“Oh, he did, did he?”_ Peter almost burst into tears again. _“Wow, um…”_

Pepper then placed a hand on Morgan’s back, guiding her away as she saw Peter’s emotional state clear on his face. _“We can talk more to Peter later, sweetheart.”_

When they had played Tony’s final recording, Peter let his tears fall.

_“I love you 3000.”_

And then, just like that, the pixels of the hologram faded into the air, like Tony’s ghost was becoming one with the earth.

Peter saw that Morgan looked scared, confused, like she was wondering why her dad was a hologram and not right there in front of her.

Peter was wondering the same thing honestly.

He blinked back into his body.

Right. The new house. The door.

He knocked.

Pepper came to answer.

“Hey Peter,” she greeted him with a smile. But her eyes still looked sad. It had only been a week or so since the funeral.

“Hi Ms. Potts.” Peter barely had the strength to fake his smile.

“Oh, please, Pepper is fine.”

“O-Ok.”

“Morgan’s excited to see you.”

“Y-Yeah, I-I’m excited to see her, too.”

“Well, come in then.”

They walked inside. Pepper led Peter to Morgan. After they said their hellos, Pepper dismissed herself to go do some Stark Industries paperwork, leaving only Peter and Morgan in the living room.

Morgan blinked with her wide, brown eyes. “Do you like Legos?”

Peter smiled a little bit at that. “Y-Yeah, I do.”

Hundreds of Lego pieces were then dumped onto the living room carpet between the TV and the couch, and Peter and Morgan started to build. It wasn’t a set, just assorted pieces, so they could build whatever their minds imagined.

“Daddy told me a lot about you,” Morgan said suddenly into the quiet room, continuing to construct the Lego house she was building.

“Y-Yeah, you told me,” Peter said back. “What kind of things did he say?”

“That you were Spider-Man,” Morgan replied, “and a bunch of stuff you did as Spider-Man, like how you saved the stuff on his plane once.”

“Oh yeah? Well, yeah, I did do those things.”

“He also said that you died.”

Peter blinked. “I-I, well, it’s hard to explain. See, there was this guy named Thanos, and he wanted to kill half of all life cuz he was evil. And so one day, um, five years ago, apparently, he made half of people turn to dust. And yeah, one of those people was me.”

“But now you’re back?”

“Yeah, I’m back. Your dad actually played a big part in helping to bring me back.”

“So then Daddy will come back too?”

Peter’s breathing stopped. God, how was he supposed to approach this? And he’d have to try to not start crying in the process. “U-Um, n-no. Your dad, h-he’s gone.”

“Why?”

“B-Because,” tears were really threatening Peter’s eyes, “well, h-he actually did a very brave and heroic thing. He defeated Thanos, that evil guy. B-But, in order to defeat him, h-he had,” oh no, his voice was cracking, “he had to s-sacrifice h-his life.”

Morgan nodded. “Yeah. Mommy said he died to save the universe.”

“Yeah.” There was a pause before he spoke again. “Your dad was one of the best people I’ve ever met, you know?”

“Really?”

“Yeah. H-He,” Peter wiped the little tears pricking at his eyes, “h-he w-was like, like a father to me.”

“So, does that mean, you’re like my big brother?”

Peter’s wet eyes met Morgan’s dry, innocent ones. “Uh, well-”

“Daddy would sometimes call you my big brother.”

Oh Jesus, of course he did. Of course he did that.

God, Peter missed him.

Peter burst into tears. He couldn’t help it.

He wiped his eyes with his sleeves, but the tears kept coming. “I-I’m s-sorry, Morgan. I’m sorry.” He shouldn’t have come. He _knew_ he was going to cry here.

Morgan looked worried. “I didn’t mean to make you cry-”

“Not your fault!” Peter quickly said. “It’s not your fault, Morgan. I-I’m just still s-sad your dad is gone.” He pulled his knees into his chest and wrapped his arms around his head, blocking everything from his view.

He heard the sound of Legos clinking against each other. Then he felt little arms wrap around the side of his body. “Don’t cry, big brother.”

Oh, but that just made Peter cry more.

Peter looked up at Morgan, his face red and damp. She looked determined to help Peter. “Do you want to hug me too?”

“Y-Yes, I would, a-actually,” Peter said. He sat with his legs crossed again and Morgan immediately climbed into his lab and hugged him. Peter squeezed her back.

_“This isn’t a hug, I’m just grabbing the door for you.”_

Peter let out a particularly loud sob.

Peter remembered when he was turning to dust, and Tony held onto him, willing his body to stay whole.

And then, when Peter came back and was rambling about what happened, and Tony interrupted him.

_“Hold me, kid. Hold me.”_

God, Peter probably looked and sounded like a mess.

Tony had really missed him. He missed him and told his daughter stories of him and called him her big brother. It wasn’t fair. Tony deserved to have more time with his daughter and with Peter. It wasn’t fair for him to… to be _gone_ so early in his life. May said that Peter should try to be happy and grateful about the time Peter got to spend with Tony, but it was hard. Like _really_ hard.

Peter was also sad that _he_ never got to hear Tony call him Morgan’s brother, or any sort of relation to his family. He knew it was kind of selfish to think that, but he didn’t care. He loved Tony like a father, and apparently Tony loved him like a son back. And now he’d never get to hear Tony tell him that himself.

Peter cried. He just wanted Tony to still be here.

Pepper must’ve heard him from her office, because she came rushing back into the room. “Peter?”

Peter looked up at her, scared of what she might think.

He was only met with her sympathetic eyes.

She walked over to where Peter and Morgan were sitting on the floor. She crouched down and hugged them as well.

“It’s ok, Peter. Let it out. The two of you lost a great father.”

Peter cried into Pepper’s shoulder.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you can believe it, the next chapter is MUCH sadder. If you'd like, I'd appreciate it if you left kudos and commented!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pepper asks Peter to babysit Morgan while she's goes on a Stark Industries business trip overnight. Peter agrees. Maybe, just maybe, he won't cry this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter made me cry so much, but it had to be written.

May was really nice about him going to visit Pepper and Morgan’s house. She let him go way more often than Peter expected her to. Anytime he asked if he could go over there, she’d say yes. She knew that Peter needed it to cope. She’d even drive him over there herself sometimes. Then Pepper would invite her inside and they’d have tea together while Peter and Morgan played. This happened multiple times over the next couple of weeks.

It was only a matter of time before Pepper asked Peter to babysit Morgan.

He’d said yes, of course. However, he didn’t really think it through. Almost every time Peter went to Morgan’s house, he cried, and Pepper would come and comfort him.

Not once did Morgan cry. She’d just hug him whenever he did.

And now he was going to be alone in the house with Morgan. Just Morgan.

And Pepper wouldn’t be home until the next day. She had to go to some Stark Industries meeting in Boston and had to stay there overnight.

Peter stood in front of the door, staring blankly in front of him at it. Again with this. He almost always did this once he got here.

He finally knocked, and Pepper answered the door. She was almost done getting ready to leave. Within the next few minutes, she was out the door, not to return until the next day’s afternoon.

Morgan grabbed Peter’s hand. “We’re having a sleepover, big brother!”

Peter tried to smile and look as excited as Morgan. “That’s right, Momo. What do you wanna do until then?”

Morgan thought. “Can you help me with something?”

“Um, sure.”

Morgan, pulling on his hand, then began to lead him down into the basement. Peter had never been to the basement of their new house before. The opened the door at the bottom of the stairs and entered.

Peter put his hand over his mouth.

It… It looked just like… like _his_ lab…

“Friday! Friday!” Morgan let go of Peter’s hand and ran into the room. “I brought Peter! You said you know Peter, right?”

“Yes, I do,” Friday’s familiar AI voice filled the air. “Hello, Peter. Nice to see you’re back. It’s been a long time.”

“H-Hi, Friday.” Wow, he hadn’t even been in the house of 10 minutes yet and he was already about to cry.

Peter expected to turn his head and to see Tony to be sitting at his desk, soldering something or screwing something in. “ _Hey kiddo,”_ he’d say, _“Let’s work on some suit upgrades for you.”_

“Peter?”

Peter blinked back into his reality, also blinking back his tears. Morgan was standing in front of him now, looking up at him with her brown eyes. “Did you hear me Peter?”

“N-No. Sorry, Momo. What’d you say?”

“I said can you help me with my circuit board?”

“Y-You’re making a circuit board?”

“Mommy said that Daddy built his first circuit board when he was 4 years old.” Morgan held up four of her fingers. “And _I’m_  4!"

“Huh, wow,” Peter processed that statement. Tony really is a genius.

 _Was_ a genius. _Was_ , not is. _Was._ He _was_.

“I can try to help,” Peter finally said. “I like to take apart and rebuild old computers, and I helped your dad with suit upgrades and stuff, so I might know some stuff to help you.”

Then they got to work. Or, well, Morgan got to work. She laid out the batteries, wires, capacitors, and all that stuff out on the desk.

Peter’s brain kept calling it _Tony’s_ desk, but he would quickly correct himself.

She didn’t really seem to need Peter’s help at all - not in the knowledge department at least. She seemed to know what to do. She just needed Peter when she had to use a potentially dangerous tool, so Peter would do those parts for her.

God, she was so smart. Tony must’ve taught her so well already. Or it was just genetics. Or it was both.

Morgan ended up not finishing her circuit board, but leaving it half done on Tony’s- on _the_ desk. Peter thought that was probably for the best. Pepper probably wanted to be there when Morgan made her first circuit board.

Tony probably would’ve wanted to be there too, but Peter tried to not think about that.

They went back upstairs to the living room after that because Morgan wanted to watch TV. It was also almost dinnertime, so Peter warmed up some food Pepper told him was in the fridge and they ate on the couch while watching Pokémon.

After a few hours of watching TV, building Legos, and not doing much talking, it was Morgan’s bedtime.

“Time for you to go to bed, Momo.”

Morgan just put down her Legos and nodded. Peter had noticed that she’s gotten more quiet since dinner. She was barely speaking now.

“We can put the Legos away tomorrow. Let’s go to your room now.” Peter took Morgan’s hand and pulled her to her feet.

“Ok,” she mumbled.

Peter was filled with worry as they walked up the stairs to the second floor, which had Morgan’s room and Pepper’s room on it. Peter was going to be sleeping on the third floor, where a guest room was.

Peter guided Morgan through her bedtime routine, double-checking that they did everything so Pepper wouldn’t be upset at him. Brushed teeth? Check. Cup of water on her bedside table? Check. Nightlight?

Oh god, she had a nightlight that looked like an arc reactor. That was simultaneously cute and saddening. Peter turned it on.

“Daddy made me that,” Morgan said, pajamas on and face half-buried in her pillow. That was the longest sentence she’d said in like an hour.

“Oh yeah?” Was all Peter could think of to say.

“Yeah. He said he used to have one as his heart.”

Peter took a deep breath and sat cross-legged next to Morgan on her bed. “Yeah, yeah he did.”

“So, h-he’d say,” Morgan’s voice stared getting shaky, “that when I was s-scared at night, I d-didn’t have to worry, b-because his heart was there protecting me.”

More sad feelings rose in Peter’s chest, threatening to choke him. “Yeah.”

And then, Morgan burst into sobs.

The first time Peter had seen her cry.

She rose from her pillow and latched onto Peter with a tight hug and cried into Peter’s shoulder. Peter sniffed back his own tears and pulled Morgan into his lap, hugging her back.

“I miss Daddy.”

Then Peter couldn’t hold back. His body shook with his own sobs. “I-I do too, Momo. I do too. God, I miss him so much.” He rubbed her back.

When both of their tears calmed down a little, Morgan spoke again. “I always miss Daddy a lot at bedtime, and then Mommy has to hug me. Daddy used to put me to bed more, and he’d make jokes and stuff and I-I… I miss him!”

Peter’s heart shattered into even more pieces than it was already in. Tony sounded like he was such a good father. Nothing like Howard. Peter was angry at the world for taking such a perfect human being like Tony Stark away. “I miss him, too,” he managed to say through his tears.

Morgan’s breathing got a bit more normal. “I miss our Dad.”

“God, Momo…” This kid was going to kill him. If she treated Peter like he was Tony’s actual son one more time… God. It was all that Peter had wanted, was to be Tony’s actual son. And basically, that's how Tony treated him. Maybe, if Tony… if Tony had just _lived_ , Peter would’ve started calling him dad or something, especially since Peter was apparently Morgan’s older brother. “Y-Yeah. I do too. I miss… I miss our dad.”

Morgan sniffed, while Peter’s sobs still racked his body almost uncontrollably.

“Can you sleep next to me?” Morgan asked. “Sometimes Mommy or Daddy would do that when I’m scared.”

“Y-Yeah, of course,” Peter wiped his tears, “I-I’ll do that, Morgan. Lemme just get ready for bed.”

After a few minutes, Peter returned to Morgan’s room, pajamas on, teeth brushed, and tears subsided. But around his eyes were still red and his mouth still didn’t smile.

He climbed into Morgan’s bed and slipped under the covers. Morgan immediately held onto Peter. Peter held her back.

“Goodnight, big brother.”

Peter sniffed. “G-Goodnight, little sis.”

After a couple minutes, Morgan spoke again in a whisper. “Usually, when Mommy’s home, we say goodnight to Daddy too. Cuz she said that he’s telling me goodnight, wherever he is.”

“Oh,” Peter whispered back. “Um, o-ok.”

“So now we need to say goodnight back to him,” Morgan said matter-of-factly. She looked up at her ceiling. “Goodnight, Daddy.”

Peter didn’t say anything.

“Now you, Peter.”

Peter didn’t know if he’d be able to do this. He’d heard that pretending to talk with a loved one that’s passed away helps with the coping process, but he never tried it out. He was always too scared and self-conscious. But now, Morgan was making him do it.

He looked up at the ceiling like she had done. “G-Goodnight, M-Mr. Stark.”

Morgan blinked. “Is that what you call Daddy?”

“Yeah.” Peter tried not to think about the first time he called Tony ‘Tony’ was the last word he’d said to him before he… before he… “Yeah, that’s what I called him.”

“You should call him dad. He told me you were like his son, so you should call him dad like I do.”

This kid was going to actually _kill_ him. “I dunno, Momo-”

“Y-You should call him dad!” Morgan’s eyes were about to spill with tears again. “O-One time, I heard D-Daddy talking to Mommy, and he said that h-he regretted never telling you that you were like his son before you died! S-So now, now you’re back, but now he’s gone, s-so he still never got to tell you, and I’m worried that he’s still wanting to tell you, but he can’t cuz he’s not here!”

God, did Tony really say that? Did Tony really say that about him? Tony _really_ thought of Peter as his own son?

It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair! Peter just wanted to hear Tony say that to _him_.

Peter couldn’t help himself. He sat up against the headboard and pulled his knees into his chest and sobbed again, loudly. Morgan sat up and hugged his side, sniffing quietly to herself.

“Please?” Morgan said. “I-I’m worried that, wherever he is now, he doesn’t know that you know you’re his kid too, so can you please tell him that you know?”

Peter took some deep breaths. He looked at Morgan, then put on a brave face for her. “Ok. Ok, sis.”

He looked up at the ceiling, his eyes squeezed shut. “H-Hey, Mr. Stark. Or, well, um… ok. Morgan told me that you thought of me as your son, and that you wanna tell me that. So, I-I just wanna say, th-that I know that now, and that… and that I, I thought of you as a father.” He sniffled. “I thought of you as a dad.”

After taking many more deep breaths, Peter turned back to Morgan. “W-Was that good? Do you think he’s still worried?”

Morgan shook her head. “N-No. I think he knows now.”

“Ok,” Peter said.

They were quiet for awhile as they both slowly stopped crying.

“You need to go to sleep, Morgan.”

As if on cue, Morgan yawned. She slid back under her covers.

Peter also moved back under the covers. Morgan cuddled up to him again and Peter hugged her back.

“I love you 3000, big brother.”

Peter took a deep breath, all out of tears for the night.

“I love you 3000, little sis.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for any pain I may have caused you. This caused me pain to write, but this scene just kept playing in my head so I had to write it down, no matter how much it emotionally damaged me. Fun fact: I wrote chapters 1 and 2 of this in he middle of the night in the span of 2 and half hours.
> 
> The next chapter's gonna be a bit different, formating-wise. You'll see. But then it'll go back to normal chapters like this.
> 
> Leave kudos and comment! I love you all 3000!


	3. File: [peters-log-1.mp3]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Transcript of an audio file found on Peter's StarkPhone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I experimented a bit with this chapter. It's really short, but hopefully you find it interesting.

_[start of audio recording]_

_[the sound of slow, careful breathing can be heard - this goes on for around 10 seconds]_

_[Peter’s voice comes in]_

“U-Uh, ok. Ok. I’m doing this.”

_[there’s another breath]_

“Um… hey… Mr. Stark… It’s been uh, like, a little over 3 weeks since… since I last saw you. Uh… my therapist said that, um, it will help me cope if I, uh, if I record little messages for you. Like little recorded letters to you or something. She said it’d let me um… like, talk out all the things I wanted to say to you before… before… you know. You know what I mean.”

_[pause]_

“I know you think therapists don’t help, Mr. Stark.” _[Peter lets out a small, quiet laugh]_ “I remember when I asked you if I should get one to help with my nightmares, and you said no way, that therapists are only there to steal your money and not to actually help you, and that's why you didn't go to one.” _[Peter pauses. When his voice returns, it’s slower are sad, like before he laughed]_ “I-I, I also remember you saying that, i-if I needed to talk to someone, I didn’t need a therapist, I-I could just come and… talk to you…”

_[Peter taking slow, deep breaths can be heard]_

“I hope you’re not right, a-about therapists not helping, I mean. Cuz I don’t wanna be wasting your money. I-I mean, Pepper’s the one who offered to pay for it. I told her she didn’t need to, but she wanted to. And she suggested this therapist to me, too.” _[Peter pauses]_ “Pepper’s so nice, Mr. Stark. So nice to me - to everyone really. I can see how you fell in love with her.”

_[there is silence for 7 seconds]_

“I-I sorry if I’m rambling, or going off on tangents, or like, if I don’t know what to say. I’m kinda just speaking into my phone. I don’t have anything written down on what to say or anything.”

_[silence for 5 seconds]_

“Morgan’s really nice to me, too. She… she’s just like you sometimes, Mr. Stark. It’s scary. I went to see Pepper and her today. I actually go over there to see them a lot. I’m kinda like Morgan’s babysitter now or something.”

_[pause]_

“Morgan told me, th-that while I was dusted, you would sometimes refer to me as her older brother.” _[Peter’s voice can be heard sounding more high-pitched and strained]_ “A-And that, you referred to me as your son, and that you thought you were a father to me.” _[Peter can be heard sniffling - his voice sounds more choked up and angry]_ “God, that’s all I ever wantsed to hear Mr. Stark. Why couldn’t you have told me that while you were alive?!”

_[Peter’s voice suddenly stops, then he starts to sob]_

“I-I’m s-sorry, Mr. Stark… i-it’s not your fault… I-I didn’t mean to say that. I didn’t mean… to get mad…”

_[Peter’s sobs get quiet over the span of a few seconds - his voice comes back still sounding choked up, but a bit calmer]_

“Sheryl - um, sh-she’s my therapist - she said that I might get mad. She said it’s part of grief or whatever.” _[a tissue being blown can be heard]_ “I-I’m still sorry though.”

_[sniffling for 8 seconds]_

“I-I miss you, Mr. Stark.”

_[sniffling]_

“I really miss you.”

_[silence for 4 seconds, then there are a few soft thud sounds against the phone]_

“This is stupid. Why am I doing this?”

_[end of audio recording]_

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was this interesting to read??? Idk. There'll be a few more of these little audio logs throughout the story, but most of the story will be normal chapters like before. The next chapter is a normal one. And remember I always love getting your kudos and reading your nice comments!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pepper asks Peter to pick up Morgan from school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello I'm back! Sorry that I haven't updated in a while, but don't worry, here's new chapter now, and this one's longer than the other ones. This one isn't as sad as the others! So that's good. There's still some sadness, obviously, but this chapter is mainly some fun, adorable Peter &Morgan brother-sister antics. Also there's a little cameo from a non-MCU Marvel character. See if you can spot it. Hope you like the chapter!

“Peter! Peter!”

“Hey, Momo!”

Morgan, wearing her Spider-Man bookbag, ran into Peter’s open arms outside of her elementary school. It had been a month and a half since Tony passed away. He still cried about it, often. Usually at night. But he was starting to get used to life without Tony, just a little bit. This was mainly because of Morgan. Because of Morgan, Peter was finally able to start smiling again. He hung out with her a lot, to babysit or just to hang out with her and Pepper. Sometimes Rhodey would come over too. So would Happy. May would join them often as well. It was nice - his new little family. Peter couldn’t help but feel like someone was missing though.

That’s when he’d start crying again.

But to distract himself from being sad, he’d hang out with Morgan. He was her ‘older brother’ after all, and he sure did act like it. He’d do anything to protect the young Stark. Even if Tony was gone, the least he could do was keep his daughter safe and well.

Morgan had been going to school for a week now. She hadn’t gone to school when they lived in the lakeside cabin. Tony had homeschooled her. Now that he was gone, she had to go to school. It was hard starting in the middle of the year, but Pepper said she was getting used to it. That day, Pepper was busy in the office, so she asked Peter if he could pick up Morgan from school, to which he happily agreed. He’d do anything for his sister. He finished school at 3:00, while Morgan ended at 3:30. He changed into his Spider-Man suit in a back alley, then - with his school backpack still on - he swung over to Morgan’s elementary school, and changed back into his normal clothes. Then he waited outside the school until her class came out.

After giving Morgan a hug hello, Peter picked her up so she rested against his hip. She wrapped her little arms around his neck and he supported her back, leaving his right hand free. Peter had seen Pepper pick up Morgan this way before, and Morgan said it’s how her dad used to pick her up, so of course that’s what Peter was going to do too. Luckily his super-strength made it really easy for him, allowing him to hold her for long periods of time.

Peter smiled - really, genuinely smiled - at Morgan. “I like your bag,” he said, nodding his head at her backpack with Spider-Man printed on it.

Morgan giggled. “Daddy bought it for me last year.”

For once, Peter’s smile didn’t falter at the mention of Tony. Sure, his heart still stung, but he was able to stay strong-looking for Morgan. “Well, I’m sure _Spider-Man_ would feel very flattered.”

Morgan giggled again, then put a finger to her lips, showing she’d never tell Peter’s secret.

“Ah! Morgan! There you are!” A friendly-sounding voice called out as a woman approached Peter and Morgan. Peter quickly realized it was Morgan’s teacher, as she looked at him and asked, “You’re here to pick Morgan up?”

“Yes, Miss.”

“Usually her mother picks her up, or sometimes her uncle. I’m afraid we can’t let you take her until you’re registered as one of the people that are able to pick her up.”

Peter only looked a little worried. “I-I’m her older brother. My name’s Peter? Her mom asked me to pick her up today. She’s busy.”

The teacher thought for a moment, then her eyes lit up. “Peter! Yes! Right, Ms. Potts called earlier and said you’d be picking her up. You’ll just need to sign her out here.” The teacher presented Peter with a clipboard and pen.

Peter sighed in relief and signed the paper on the clipboard with his free hand that wasn’t holding Morgan. “There you go.”

The teacher held the clipboard at her side again. She looked at Peter curiously. “You know,” she said, “I don’t remember Tony Stark having a son. How old are you?”

Peter’s heart stung again, this time stronger. Peter forced his face into a smile. “I-I’m 16.”

“Huh,” was all the teacher said in response. She was clearly trying to remember a time she saw Tony Stark ever mention having a son on TV or social media or anything like that.

Peter waited for her awkwardly. Excited children screamed and laughed around him.

The teacher shook her head, not being able to think of one instance _the_ Tony Stark ever mentioned having a son. “Anyway, you and Morgan here must be very proud. He was a real hero. The greatest of them all.”

Peter swallowed the sobs bubbling in his throat. “Uh-huh. Yeah. D-Definitely. Thanks.”

The teacher smiled and nodded, before her eye caught a mother approaching her. “Ah! Ms. Williams!” The teacher turned her attention to the mother, who was holding her daughter’s hand.

The daughter, who wore her hair in twists with colorful barrettes at the ends, looked up at Morgan in Peter’s arm and waved. “Bye Morgan!”

Morgan waved back. “Bye Riri! See you tomorrow!”

After the little girl looked back towards her mom, Peter walked away with Morgan down the street. “Was that your friend?”

Morgan smiled. “Yeah, she’s in my class.”

“That’s great!” Peter was worried Morgan wasn’t going to know how to talk with other children after living in that cabin with only adults for so long. Pepper had mentioned she was having a bit of trouble making friends. But it was nice to see that had changed. “What do you guys like to do at school?”

“Well, Riri really liked Daddy, so she wanted to be my friend, and I said ok. I tell her about him sometimes, but mostly we draw and play blocks. She likes to draw Dad in his Iron Man suit.”

Peter nodded, again ignoring the twinge of sadness in his heart again. “Cool. What do you draw?”

“I draw Spider-Man!”

Peter couldn’t help but smile again. “That’s great. Maybe you two will grow up and still be good friends, like me and Ned.”

“I hope so.”

After a short ride on the subway, Peter and Morgan arrived at Morgan’s house. Pepper was still at work. Peter unlocked the door with the key she’d given him a while ago and entered. Morgan immediately ran for the kitchen table. She climbed into a chair and opened her bag, pulling out a notebook and a folder.

“Do you have homework?” Peter asked.

Morgan nodded. “It’s really easy though.”

“I bet.” Peter sat down in a chair next to her, taking out his own homework. “I doubt you’ll need it, but I’m right here if you need help.”

“Ok.”

They both did their homework in silence after that - Morgan working on addition and subtraction worksheets, while Peter did pre calc questions from his textbook.

“Done!” Morgan cheered after only 10 minutes. She turned to Peter. “What’re _you_ doing? Also math?”

“Yeah, but my math’s a lot harder.”

“Daddy always said you were super smart like him. I bet you’ll finish soon.”

God, people were really mentioning Tony a lot that day, weren’t they? Usually it wasn’t this often. Peter ignored his sad thoughts. “Thanks, Momo.”

Morgan leaned over in her chair to look at Peter’s textbook. “Can I see it?”

“Sure.” Peter pushed it closer to her.

She ran her finger across the section header that Peter was on and read it. “Sim… Simplify the…  trig...gon...om...et...tric… trigonometric... ex… expression. Simplify the trigonometric expression! What’s that mean?”

“It means I gotta take these expressions and write them in the simplest way possible,” Peter said. “It’s pretty easy to do, it’s just sometimes hard to remember all the rules and all the ways to simplify them. I’m pretty good at stuff like this though, so I won’t be much longer. Just these two more questions.”

“Can I watch you?”

“Sure.”

For the last two questions of Peter’s work, he explained how he did them as he wrote. Morgan listened carefully. Peter couldn’t tell if she understood at all, but something told him she did, at least a little bit. She was a Stark after all.

Peter closed his pre calc textbook when he finished. Morgan cheered. “Yay! Can we play Mario Kart now?”

Peter laughed. He moved a lock of Morgan’s hair behind her ear. “Sorry Momo, but I don’t just have math like you. When you get to be in high school like me, you have tons of homework. You have homework in _every subject!”_

“What?! That sounds terrible!”

“Yeah, it is,” Peter said. “It’s ok. You can go play video games while I keep working here.”

“I don’t wanna play without you though.”

Peter’s expression softened. “Well, you can stay next to me and watch, but I think you’ll get bored.”

“No, it’s ok,” Morgan reached in her back and pulled out another folder. She opened the folder to reveal a collection of crayon drawings. “I want to finish the drawing I started in class. I can still stay next to you.” She reached in her bag again and pulled out a pencil case full of many colors of crayons.

“Alright, good.” Peter pulled his binder out of his own bag and opened it to his AP US History section.

They worked in silence again. Morgan doodled bright colors on her piece of paper, while Peter wrote the first draft of his boring Cold War essay. After only around 15 minutes, Peter’s brain was having trouble focusing on his boring work. His Spider-Senses made it really hard to focus on stuff for long periods of time, and his work being so dull didn’t help. He couldn’t help but keep glancing at Morgan’s more interesting work. He saw a messy, red and blue scribble of a figure and knew she was drawing him as Spider-Man. He looked at her crayons, now spilled all over the table, and saw how the red and blue were worn down much more than the others.

“Hey Momo, can I look at your other drawings?”

Morgan passed him her folder. “Here you go!”

“Thanks,” Peter flipped through the folder’s contents. Sure enough, most of her drawings featured Spider-Man in some way. A bunch featured Iron Man too, and occasionally another Avenger showed up, but it was mainly Spider-Man.

After looking through all the drawings, Peter put the folder back in Morgan’s bag, which he remembered was also Spider-Man themed. He couldn’t help but ask himself - Why was Morgan so obsessed with Spider-Man? It couldn’t just be because he was her ‘brother’. Iron Man was her _father_. Why wasn’t she obsessed with Iron Man? Surely Tony told her all the things he did, and all the times he saved the world. His accomplishments were way bigger and way cooler than Spider-Man’s.

“Momo?”

“Yeah, big brother?”

“Who’s your favorite superhero?”

“You are of course, silly!”

“Well, why not Iron Man? Your dad was Iron Man.”

“Yeah, but you were Dad’s favorite superhero. So now you’re _my_ favorite.”

Peter eyes widened and his breath hitched for a moment. “Did… Did he say that? He told you I was his favorite superhero?”

Morgan put her crayon down and thought for a second. “I don’t remember if he said it. But he always told me stories about you, so I think you were.”

Peter knew Tony had told stories about him to Morgan. She’d told him that, and so had Pepper. But… _always_? “How often did he tell you stories about me?”

“All the time before bed. He told be bedtime stories about a bunch of Avengers, but they were mostly about you. The best stories he told were always the ones about you, so I asked him to tell me them a lot.”

Peter blinked, half in shock and half to blink back tears. “I… Wow, really?”

“Yep!”

“Did he ever tell stories about him as Iron Man?”

“Yeah, a few. He said he didn’t like to tell Iron Man stories though. Mommy said that Daddy didn’t like to think about Iron Man memories a lot, cuz sometimes they were scary and would give him bad dreams.”

Peter looked down at his hands. “Oh. Right.”

“But when he told stories about you, he was never scared. He was always happy. He was always smiling and it made those stories be the best stories.”

Oh no, yeah, ok. Tears were definitely in the corners of his eyes now, threatening to spill over. “Wow, th-that’s… that’s great. What were the stories about? Do you remember?”

“Yeah I remember! I drew about them all!” She pointed at her drawing. “This is the time you rescued people from that building that was on fire!”

Peter remembered that. He was so scared that someone was going to die on his watch. Luckily, no one did, but it had been _so_ scary.

“And this,” Morgan got out her folder of drawings again and spread them out on the table, pointing to each of them, “this is when you and Daddy worked on upgrading your suit for the first time. And this is when you saved your friends in Washington DC. This is when a lady bought you a churro. This is when you rescued a cat from a tree. This is when you stopped a bank robbery. And this is when you stopped the Vulture from stealing stuff from Dad’s jet!”

Peter tried to hide that he was internally freaking out. Wow, Tony really told Morgan _everything_. And she loved it. She loved him and admired him. She looked up to him, as more than a big brother - as a hero.

She looked at him. “The Vulture story was the best story he told! You were so cool and brave in it! Can you tell me that story sometime?”

Peter’s eyes darted away. He really, _really_ didn’t want to think about the Vulture. He didn’t want to think about the building collapsing on him, almost crushing him to death. He didn’t want to think about standing on top of that jet, the winding flying fast at his face, panicking as he tried to maneuver the plane so it didn’t hit any buildings. He didn’t want to think about the Vulture’s mechanical claws grasping around him, slamming him into the Coney Island sand over and over. “I-I don’t think so, Momo. Sorry. It, uh, it’s like with your dad. For me, that story’s scary and gives me nightmares.”

“Oh. Ok.” Morgan only looked a little disappointed, but it still made Peter feel bad.

“Hey, it’s ok though, cuz I can tell you _tons_ of Iron Man stories! Probably a bunch you haven’t heard of too.”

Morgan’s eyes quickly lit back up. “Really?”

“Yeah! I’d love to!” Peter’s smile was back on his face. “Iron Man is _my_ favorite superhero, so I know a bunch. I only hope I can tell stories as well as your dad did.”

“I bet you will! Oh, I can’t wait! Will you tell me one when you finish your homework?”

“Yes, definitely!”

That gave Peter the motivation to actually focus on his work. He wanted to finish it as soon as possible.

 

⎊ ⎊ ⎊

 

Pepper arrived home at 8pm. It was already dark outside as she got her jingling keys out and unlocked the door. When she stepped inside, she saw Peter and Morgan on the couch, and a warm smile automatically spread across her face.

“And _then_ ,” Peter said, moving his hands around in wild, storytelling gestures, “Iron Man grabbed onto the nuclear bomb, and flew it up into the wormhole!”

Morgan’s hands were over her mouth. “Daddy did _what_?!”

“He flew it up into the wormhole and blew up the whole Chitauri army with it!”

“Woah…”

“Then, right before the Avengers closed the wormhole, he fell back down to Earth. The Hulk caught him, and then he woke up on the ground. Then they went back to the tower and captured Loki. New York City was saved!”

Morgan’s eyes were sparkling with wonder. “Daddy really did that? He saved the world back then too?”

“Your dad saved the world _so_ many times!” Peter said. Pepper hadn’t seen him look this excited in a long, _long_ time.

“He never told me that.”

“Well, it was really scary for him to talk about,” Peter said. “Imagine if you had to throw a bomb at bunch of aliens in space. That’d probably give you bad dreams, right?”

“Yeah,” Morgan said. “Daddy was really brave, wasn’t he?”

“He was the bravest! Captain America called him Earth’s Greatest Defender.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, he did!”

“Nice to see you kids having fun.”

Peter and Morgan turned around and finally saw Pepper. Morgan ran up to her. “Mommy!”

“Hi sweetheart,” Pepper gave her daughter a hug. Then she looked a Peter. “What, I don’t get a hug from you too?”

Peter laughed and walked over to hug her too. “Hey Pepper.”

“Hey Pete.”

“Peter was telling me stories about Daddy that he never ever told me! Did you know Daddy flew into a wormhole in the sky and blew up evil aliens?!”

Pepper smiled and fixed Morgan’s hair. Yes, of course she remembered that. How could she not? She’d been scared to death. “Yes I did, sweetie. He was always throwing himself into dangerous situations to save others, even if his life was at stake.” Her smile looked weak and forced now. “He was the most selfless man I’ve ever met.”

Peter felt the weight of those words too, and a wave of sadness washed over him.

Morgan was the only one her looked remotely happy, eyes lit up in awe, jumping with excitement. It made Peter and Pepper both feel better. As long as Morgan was happy, that’s all that mattered.

“I should leave soon,” Peter broke the silence.

“Thank you so much, Peter,” Pepper said, gratitude heavy in her voice. “I’m sorry if this was a lot of trouble, to pick her up and all.”

“No, it was fine! Really! I’m happy to do it!” Peter said quickly. “If you need me to do it again, just call me. Really, I’m happy to do it.”

Pepper smiled, relieved. “I probably will have to ask you again. The company keeps me so busy and Happy’s usually too busy as well.”

“That’s fine. Just call me when you need me.”

“Great, That’s perfect.”

Peter grabbed his backpack and slung it across his shoulder, then looked at Morgan. She ran up to him and hugged his legs tightly. “Next time, can you tell me more stories about Dad?”

“Of course, Momo. I’d love to. Did he ever tell you about a city called Sokovia?”

Morgan shook her head. “No! Will you tell me?”

“Yes. Next time.”

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you spot the Riri Williams cameo? And yeah yeah I know Riri is probably older by now and that she's not from New York but I don't care because I REALLY wanted Riri and Morgan to be best friends lol. Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter. I've already written the next few chapters too, so expect this fanfic to update again really soon.
> 
> Also, I'm going to post the first chapter of my NOT SAD, very fluffy and adorable Irondad & Spider-Son fic soon!!!! So if you wanna recover from this sad fic and the sadness of Endgame, I recommend you read that fic when I post it. I'll say when it's posted in the notes once I do.
> 
> Again, thanks for reading! Leave kudos and a comment if you liked it!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little more fluff and a little more sad. Sorry for not posting sooner. Thanks again for reading!

Over the next days they met up, Peter told Morgan as many stories about Tony as he could. He told her about what he did in Sokovia. He told her about how he fought Obadiah Stane, Ivan Vanko and the Hammer drones, and the Mandarin. He told her stories about times they were in the lab together, most of which Morgan already knew. There were still a couple that she didn’t know, ones that Tony hadn’t remembered. Peter noticed that Morgan’s yellow crayon started getting worn down more than before, and her red crayon was worn down even more. Her drawings shifted focus from Spider-Man to Iron Man, and Peter was perfectly okay with that. Tony had honored his legacy when he was dusted. Now it was Peter’s responsibility to honor Tony’s.

However, when Peter asked who her favorite superhero was, Morgan still said it was Spider-Man. “Because that’s who Daddy’s favorite was.”

One day, Peter was swinging around as Spider-Man, on patrol. It was around noon on a Thursday. And sure, Peter probably should’ve been at school, but they were doing these big reports in English that day on the Decimation and Thanos and the day Tony died and holy fuck Peter did  _ not _ want to be in class when they talked about that. He didn’t care if he missed the assignment. It wouldn’t lower his average by that much, and his mental health was  _ way _ more important. Plus he didn’t want to burst out sobbing in the middle of class.

So he escaped into his suit, Karen guiding his way through the streets of the city. Pepper had texted him earlier, telling him that he was going to have to pick Morgan up from school again. He figured he’d patrol until then.

He had to admit, it was hard for him to put the suit back on after everything that happened. For the first few weeks after Tony passed away, he was sure he’d never want to go out as Spider-Man again. But then he thought about how disappointed Tony would be if Peter never put the suit he built for him to good use again. And then Morgan had told him about how much she loved Spider-Man. After that, he thought it was crazy that he ever considered stopping. He could never disappoint his family like that.

He swung through the streets, air rushing by him. “Anything going on near us, Karen?”

“Not that I see,” his AI responded. “You should really be at school, Peter.”

“Haha, nope. Not today, Karen. Sorry.” Peter looked around at where he was, and realized he was only a few blocks from Morgan’s school. It was around noon, so Morgan should be out for recess. Maybe he should pay her a visit. He shot another web, changed directions, and swung his way over there.

He landed on top of Morgan’s elementary school and looked over into the schoolyard. Sure enough, plenty of little kids were running around, screaming and playing. Peter searched for Morgan’s face with the facial recognition program in his suit. When he found her, he saw she was talking with two boys and a girl. However, the look of Morgan’s face didn’t look too happy.

Peter’s whole body filled with worry and anger. “Karen, activate enhanced reconnaissance mode. What are those kids saying to Morgan?”

Karen made the audio of their far-away conversation louder.

“There’s no way!” One of the boys said in a nasty tone.

“Yeah, you’re lying! You’re a liar!” The other one said.

“I’m not lying! I swear! I do know him!” Morgan’s voice sounded angry and frustrated.

“ _ No one _ knows Spider-Man!” Said the girl. “Just because you’re a Stark doesn’t make you special. There’s no way you know him!”

“I do! I do know him I  _ swear!” _

Peter had to fight the urge to go down there and punch the lights out of those kids. How dare they say things like that to his little sister? He took a few deep breaths to calm himself, then shot out a web and swung down, landing on a part of the fence surrounding the schoolyard.

All the children immediately took notice of frickin  _ Spider-Man _ in their schoolyard. They ran up to him, crowding around him. Peter quickly thought of an excuse to get over to Morgan, since it’d be weird if he said he’d just been listening in on her conversation and was ready to show off in front of some bullies so they knew for sure that Morgan knew him.

“Hey kids! Hi! Yes, nice to meet you! I’m sorry everyone, but I have a very important message for Morgan Stark. Do you know where she is?”

A bunch of kids pointed to her. She was still near her three bullies, all of them staring at him in awe. Peter smiled underneath his mask. Time to protect his sister.

He leaped high into the air, jumping over the crowd of students, and doing a flip before he landing right next to Morgan. The kids screamed in amazement.

“Hey Morgan!” Peter said. The surrounding kids quieted down, wanted to hear their conversation.

Morgan looked happier than ever. “Hi, Spidey!”

“How’s my favorite kid in the world doing? You doing good in school?”

“Yeah! I got a 100 on my math quiz today!”

“That’s awesome,” Peter said. “I have a message from your mom.”

“Yeah?”

“She said that your big brother Peter is gonna pick you up from school today.”

Morgan’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Yep! He’ll see you soon, ok?”

“Ok!”

“Alright,” Peter ruffled Morgan’s hair a little. “And if anyone is being mean to you or disrespecting you, you tell them that that Spider-Man will come and punch them in the nose, ok?”

“Spidey!” Morgan laughed. “That’s not very nice!”

“Well, they’re the ones not being nice in the first place.”

“ _ Spidey!” _

“Alright, alright. I won’t  _ punch _ them, per say. But I  _ will _ have to do  _ something _ if anyone is mean to you. Ok?”

“Ok, fine.”

“Good. Can I get a high five?”

Morgan high fived Peter’s hand. Then he said goodbye to Morgan and her classmates, shot a web at the school building, and zoomed into the sky. He grinned under his mask. No one was going to mess with his sister ever again.

 

⎊ ⎊ ⎊

 

Just a few hours later, Peter was back in his civilian clothes and standing outside Morgan’s school, waiting for her to come out. After only a few minutes of waiting, Morgan’s class walked out with their teacher. Morgan spotted him and ran up to him, her friend with the barrettes in her hair close behind.

“Hi Peter!” Morgan hugged his legs.

“Hey Momo.”

Morgan’s friend caught up to them and Morgan gestured at her. “This is my best friend Riri, Peter!”

The girl waved. “Hi Morgan’s big brother!”

Peter waved back. “Hello! Nice to meet you! Did you two have fun at school today?”

“Yes!” Riri said, her hands balled into fists with excitement. “ _ Spider-Man _ came and talked to Morgan during recess!”

“What?” Peter tried to act shocked and amazed as best he could. “No way! That’s crazy! You guys are really lucky!”

Morgan was laughing. “Yeah, we are.”

Morgan’s teacher soon came up to Peter and he signed her out. They said bye to Riri and her mother and then left down the street.

Morgan looked up at Peter. “When you visited today, weren’t you supposed to be at school?”

Peter shrugged. “I, uh, I didn’t go today.”

“Peter!” Morgan gasped. “You have to go to school!”

“I know, I know! Don’t tell Mom, ok? She’ll be mad! Just, trust me. I have my reasons for not going, ok? It’s fine.”

Morgan blinked. “Ok.”

“What’s wrong?” Peter was suddenly worried by Morgan’s quiet tone “Did I say something?”

“You called my mom ‘Mom’.”

Now it was Peter’s turn to go quiet. His walking slowed. “Huh. I did, didn’t I?”

“Yeah.”

Peter’s cheeks went a little red. “Don’t tell her, ok?”

“She wouldn’t mind. You’re like a son to her now, just like how you were to Dad. I can tell.”

God, every time anyone said Tony thought of Peter ‘like a son’, it broke his heart. It should’ve made him  _ happy _ to hear that, but no. It just reminded him that he’d never get to hear Tony say that to him himself. It reminded him that Tony was  _ gone _ , that he’d never get to tell Peter that he was like a son to him, and that Peter would never get to tell Tony that he was like a father to him. It reminded him that it was too late for any of that, and that he’d have to live with that fact forever.

But he knew Morgan didn’t mean to make him think all that sad stuff, so he just forced a smile. “Thanks.”

They took the subway to Morgan’s house. Since Peter didn’t go to school, he didn’t know what his homework was. He checked Google Classroom as Morgan did her work next to him, and luckily, he didn’t have much homework that day, only a little pre calc and a little Spanish. No work in any of his APs that day - a miracle. He quickly did what little homework he had, and finished by the time Morgan was done with all her work.

“Alright,” Peter said as he closed his textbook. He turned to Morgan, and noticed she wasn’t as happy and hyper as she usually was. “How you doing?”

Morgan nodded. “I’m good.”

“Ok. I’m finished with my work too. You wanna do something?”

Morgan nodded again and took Peter’s hand, pulling him in the direction of the basement.

Ok. It was one of those days.

They walked down into the basement lab. Friday greeting them, and DUM-E waved from his corner. Morgan didn’t sit at the workbench this time. No, instead she sat cross-legged in the middle of the tile floor. Then she patted the floor next to her. Peter walked over and sat by her side.

“What’re we doing on the floor, Momo?”

Morgan took a breath before she answered. “Sometimes… Sometimes I come down here and sit here, and I watch old videos of Daddy.”

Oh yeah, ok, it was one of those days. Peter tried to prepare his emotions, but there was nothing that could prepare him for this. “What kinds of videos?”

“Any videos that Friday finds,” Morgan said. “Some of them are from when I was younger. Some of them are from before I was even born. Some have you in them.”

Peter was quiet.

“We should watch one of those.”

“No, it’s ok Mo-”

“Friday, can you play the video where Daddy is teaching Peter how to build an arc reactor?”

“Of course, Little Boss,” the AI’s voice rang throughout the lab, and a blue, rectangular hologram-screen popped up in front of them.

“This is one of my favorite ones,” Morgan whispered to Peter.

Peter knew he was definitely going to cry.

The video started to play. It was clearly security camera footage, but it was still in HD, because of course Tony Stark had security cameras that shot 4K footage. Tony and Peter in the video, tinted slightly blue from the holo-screen, were sitting at the worktable in Tony’s old lab in the Avengers Compound. Tony was carefully looking over Peter’s work, as Peter carefully concentrated on soldering the coils of copper wire around a piece of donut shaped metal. God, for Peter, this felt like just a few months ago. But he knew it was really five years ago. That was still so hard to wrap his head around.

_ “Careful,” _ Tony in the video said, and Peter almost burst into tears just front hearing his voice again. _ “Careful, kid. Move just a smidge to the left.” _

_ “Ok,” _ Peter in the video said. Oh wow, his voice sounded really weird in the video. It was higher and… weird. Did he always sound like that? It’s always weird to hear your own voice in a recording.

After ten more seconds of concentrated silence, video-Peter spoke again.  _ “And uh, where do I put this wire again?” _

_ “Right there, kid.” _

_ “Gotcha.” _

Peter remembered being so nervous that day. He remembered being so anxious that he’d mess up and Tony would think less of him. But, looking at the screen, he could clearly see that Tony wasn’t thinking anything like that. In fact, he was smiling as Peter worked, not looking mad or disappointed at all when Peter asked him what to do. They… They really did look like father and son.

Silent tears made their way down Peter’s face.

Peter - real-life Peter, not the one in the video - turned to Morgan, who was staring at the screen, mesmerized. Her eyes were shiny, and her fists were clenched tightly.

“Hey,” Peter said softly, “you ok?”

Morgan looked over to him and gasped. “Y-You’re crying.”

“Yeah, I know, it’s ok,” Peter wiped his eyes with his sleeve. “I’m just sad, watching this. Cuz I miss him. I still…  _ really _ miss him. They’re not all completely sad tears though. There’s a bit of happy tears mixed in there.”

“Really?”

Peter sniffed. “Yeah. It’s, um, it’s nice to hear his voice again, you know?”

Morgan nodded, shaking a few tears free from her eyes. She quickly wiped them away, her fists still clenched. Her knuckles were white.

“Seriously, Morgan,” Peter said carefully, “is something on your mind?”

Morgan didn’t answer right away. She took a few deep breaths. “Dad’s never going to get to teach me how to build an arc reactor.” She sniffed, and her tears spilled over. “Daddy’s gone. He said when I was older, he’d teach me to build more things. But now he’s  _ gone _ !” She broke into sobs.

Peter quickly wrapped his arms around her. “Friday, pause the video,” Peter asked the general direction of the ceiling. Friday silently obeyed. Morgan crawled into Peter’s lap and cried loudly, hugging him back like a koala bear. She cried into his shoulder, wetting his shirt with her tears. Peter was still crying too, but his tears were quiet. He held Morgan’s head close to him. “It’s ok. Let it out.”

“N-No, it’s not ok!” Morgan almost screamed, her voice raw with frustration. “I don’t want to cry! I don’t want to cry anymore! Daddy never cried like this! Daddy was strong and brave and flew bombs into alien wormholes and never cried! I wanna… I wanna be like him!”

“Oh, Morgan,” Peter brushed her hair out of her eyes, “That’s not true. Sure, your dad was strong and brave, but he still cried. He cried when he got sad.”

Morgan sniffed, then said quietly, “Really?”

“Of course he did. He was a human being.” Peter hesitated. “Remember… remember when everyone thought I was dead?”

“Yeah.”

“Didn’t you ever see your dad cry then?”

Morgan thought for a moment. “Yeah, I did. I guess you’re right.”

Peter nodded. “Brave, strong heroes cry too, Momo. It’s ok for you to cry. See, look, I’m crying too, right? And I’m still super cool Spider-Man, right?”

Morgan nodded, starting to cry louder again. “Y-Yeah, you’re right. You’re right. I’m… I’m really sad that he’ll… he’ll never get to teach me how to build an arc reactor. Or an Iron Man suit. Or anything like that.”

“I know. I’m really sad about that too.” Then Peter thought of an idea. “Hey, you know, I can teach you all that, when you’re older. I-I know it won’t be the same as your dad teaching you, but at least you’d then know how to build those things, right?”

Morgan looked up at him like he was an angel. “Y-You really would teach me?”

“Yes! Of course! Your dad taught me how to build all those things. It’s only fair that I teach you.”

Morgan nodded. “Yes please! I want to know how to build things just like him!”

“Ok, then I will.” Peter hugged her tighter. “You wanna turn the video back on?”

Morgan nodded again.

“Ok. Friday, resume video.”

Morgan turned around and continued to watch the video, still sitting in Peter’s lap. Peter kept her arms tight around her, protecting his sister.

The video came to an end after a few minutes. At the end of it, the arc reactor video-Peter was building glowed blue, and video-Peter jumped out of his seat, surprised that he actually succeeded.  _ “Yes! Oh my god! I did it!” _

_ “Hell yeah, you did,”  _ Tony slung his arm around Peter’s shoulder and ruffled his hair.  _ “I’m proud of you, kid.” _

Peter let out a breath that was shakey with tears.

The Peter in the video laughed and beamed at Tony.  _ “Thanks, D- Mr. Stark. Thanks, really!” _

Peter couldn’t help but laugh a little at his video self. “You catch that?” He said to Morgan. “I almost slipped up and called him Dad by accident.”

“He wouldn’t have minded.”

Peter sighed. “Yeah. I know that now.” He went silent for a moment. “I wish I’d known it back then.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter coming soon! Thanks again for reading!
> 
> My fluffy, happy Irondad fic will be coming soon as well! Stick around for it!


	6. File: [peters-log-2.mp3]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Transcript of another audio file found on Peter's StarkPhone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wrote another audio file transcript cuz it's fun. They're short, but fun. Hope you like it!

_ [start of audio recording] _

_ [Peter’s voice comes in, neutral sounding] _

“Hey Mr. Stark. I uh, I dunno… felt like talking to you today.”

_ [pause] _

“School was pretty good today. We got our physics quizzes back and I got an A.”  _ [pause] _ “It’s kinda weird - school, I mean. Like one day I was just going to school like normal. Then I went to space, and then when I come back half my classmates already graduated and there’s kids I don’t know in their place. It’s… still weird… to think that I was gone for 5 years. Doesn’t feel like that at all. It’s like I was in a coma or something. I’m kinda lucky tho, cuz Ned and MJ were dusted with me.

_ [pause] _

“Wait… maybe… is that selfish? Like, to say that I’m lucky that my friends temporarily died with me?”  _ [pause] _ “You know what, I don’t care. I’m so thankful they’re still with me and they’re still my age. If they had graduated and left me behind… I don’t know what I’d do… I would’ve lost-”  _ [Peter suddenly goes quiet] _ “I would’ve lost you  _ and _ them. Then I’d barely have anyone left.”  _ [he takes a deep breath] _ “Well, I’m grateful they’re still with me. That’s all I’m trying to say. It’d… it would’ve been even better if you were here too.”

_ [long pause] _

“Morgan, she’s also going to school now. It was her first day of a few weeks ago.”  _ [pause] _ “I’m sorry you had to miss that, Mr. Stark. But she… she’s doing great. She’s really smart. Sometimes I do my homework next to her and she understands when I tell her what I’m doing in like, pre calc and physics and stuff. You’d be so proud of her. She’s even made a few friends, including this really nice girl that’s like her best friend now.”

_ [pause] _

“A-Also, I learned that I’m uh… the therapist I’m going to, Sheryl, she was uh… she was your therapist, while I was dusted. I… wow… What did Pepper say to convince  _ you _ to go to a therapist Mr. Stark?”  _ [faint laughter] _ “Cuz I remember you were super against going to any sort of therapy ever. I know only Pepper could’ve made you do something you didn’t wanna do.”  _ [pause] _ “Or maybe, you  _ wanted _ to go. Maybe… you were  _ that _ sad that I was… gone.”  _ [pause] _ “I dunno. Maybe I’ll ask Pepper tomorrow.”

_ [pause] _

“I… I asked her - the therapist, I mean - I asked her what you were like when I was dusted. Like, what you said to her. She said she couldn’t tell me cuz of like patient confidentiality or whatever but I, well, I was already c-crying at the time when I asked her that, and I got a little angry, and I kinda… just yelled at her to tell me.”  _ [pause] _ “I feel bad that I yelled at her. I just… wanted to know what you said about me. I think she understood. She didn’t tell me much, just that like, you really cared about me, and that I was like a son to you.”  _ [Peter’s voice chokes up on the word ‘son’ - his next words are shaky with tears] _ “God I wish I could’ve heard- heard you say that. Like say it to  _ me _ .”

_ [shaky breaths, then they become calmer] _

“S-Sorry, that’s selfish, I know. You probably thought you’d have plenty of time to tell me later, but…”

_ [long pause] _

“...but I guess not.”

_ [another long pause - quiet breaths can be heard] _

_ [end of audio recording] _

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be a normal chapter. Idk how many chapter I'll have in this story by probably like 10-ish? Idk.
> 
> Also my fluffy, happy, not-endgame-compliant Irondad Spiderson fic is still in development! I wanna write a few chapters before I start posting it here, but I've hit a bit of writer's block on it. Don't worry, I'll put a link here when I post it. Thanks for reading and leaving kudos! I love reading all your nice comments, so feel free to comment more!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter finds out how Tony figured out time travel. He also finds out who inspired Tony to do so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a new chapter! This one's a bit shorter than some of the others others, but I hope you still like it!

Another month went by. Peter really settled into his new life without Tony. He cried less often. He was able to think back on memories of him and not burst into tears, and instead think back on them fondly. He felt thankful that he ever got to meet Tony and grow close to him in the first place. And of course, there were still days when it was hard, but it had gotten much easier than it used to be. There was still a huge Tony Stark-shaped hole in his heart, but Morgan was able to help him feel better.

Peter was babysitting Morgan at her house again. What else was new? He seemed to be over there more than he was at his own house. It was Saturday, so Peter didn’t have to didn’t have to do homework. He could spend the whole day with Morgan.

It was actually a really nice day. Morgan wanted to play Animal Crossing on her Nintendo Switch. Peter was happy to learn that while he was dusted, a new Animal Crossing game had  _ finally _ come out for the Switch, and he was happy to watch Morgan play it. He would occasionally point to the screen and give Morgan advice, which Morgan would always listen carefully to.

After a few hours of that, Morgan stopped playing and said she wanted a piggyback ride. So Peter ducked down and let her climb up his back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. She giggled as Peter hoisted her up, and Peter couldn’t help but laugh too.

Peter gave the best piggyback rides since he was Spider-Man. Neither of them dared to tell Pepper, but when she wasn’t home, Peter would carry Morgan on his back and climb up the walls and onto the ceiling. He made sure Morgan was stuck tight to him so she wouldn’t fall off. It was all perfectly safe, but if Pepper found out she’d probably flip.

That day, Peter again crawled up the wall and on the ceiling, Morgan giggling away right behind his ears. “Go to the kitchen, Petey!”

“Ok, spider-sis,” Peter said with a smile and crawled across the living room ceiling over to the kitchen.

Between her laughs, Morgan said, “You give better piggyback rides than Daddy!”

Usually, the comment would’ve made Peter sad, but his mind instead quickly imagined what would’ve happened if Mr. Stark ever caught Peter on the ceiling with Morgan. He’d probably flip out even more than Pepper would. Morgan would probably just laugh and tell him it’s ok, which Peter would try to make excuses and say how Morgan begged him to do it. It was a bittersweet thought, to think how it could’ve been - one happy family.

Peter’s smile was small, but it was still there. “Thanks, Mo. That’s the best compliment you’ve ever given me.”

After a bit more being upside down, Peter crawled down from the ceiling and warmed up some food that Pepper had left them. After eating, Morgan took his hand and informed him that she wanted to go down to the lab and watch videos of Tony. Peter followed her down the stairs.

They sat cross-legged next to each other in front of the blue holo-screen as Friday played video after video. The first was of Morgan’s third birthday. The second was of Tony alone in his lab, building some new Iron Man thing, while DUM-E kept interrupting him in funny ways. In the third video, Peter was helping Tony work on his suit while they talked about what happened that day at Peter’s school.

Tears glazed Peter’s eyes as he watched, but his mouth was curved into a smile. He was still incredibly sad that Tony was gone, yes, but it felt much better to not think about that fact and just watch the happy videos play. It felt better to just think about the good memories. It was hard for Peter to accept that about Tony - that now he was just a memory. But the videos helped.

Friday played the next video. It was just Tony, alone in the kitchen of the lakeside cabin, washing dishes. His hair was more gray than Peter remembered. It wasn’t the most interesting thing to watch, but Peter didn’t care. He was just happy to see Tony.

Some water splashed onto some picture frames next to the sink. Tony took his towel and started to dry them off, but then paused, staring at the one in his hand. The look on his face was heartbreaking.

This peaked Peter’s curiosity. “Hey Fri? Can you pause and enhance on what Mr. Stark is holding? I can’t see it that well.”

“Of course, Peter,” Friday said and did so, pausing the video and zooming in on the picture in Tony’s hands.

Peter’s breath hitched.

That picture… It was a copy of the picture he and Tony took to have some evidence of his ‘internship’. Peter had a copy in his room at home. It was a great picture - with Peter and Tony both smiling and giving each other bunny ears.

Peter sniffed, and a few tears were set free from his eyes. “W-Wow. He really kept that picture? There in the cabin?”

“Yeah,” Morgan said. “Sometimes he would take it down from that shelf and would show me it. And he’d say, ‘that’s your big brother Peter.’”

Peter sniffed again. “Wow. That’s… just wow. How long did he keep that there? Friday, what’s the date on this video?”

“This footage is dated April 26th, 2023.”

Peter couldn’t help but let out a gasp. “Th-That… That’s just a few days before…”

_ Before the battle. Before Tony died _ . He couldn’t finish the sentence.

“I have more footage from this date,” Friday said. “Would you like to see it?”

“Yes, I would,” Peter said quickly, then turned to Morgan. “Is that ok with you?”

Morgan nodded. “That’s fine.”

Friday started a new video. “This is from just a few hours after that other video.”

This footage was from Tony’s lab at the cabin. He was working with some hologram stuff on the table.  _ “See if it checks out. So, we’re gonna run one last sim before we pack it in for the night.” _ He was talking to Friday, presumably, because he looked alone in the room.  _ “This time, in the shape of a mobius strip, inverted, please.” _

_ “Processing,” _ Friday’s voice came from the video.

Tony spun the hologram around and said a bunch of sciencey stuff that even Peter had trouble understanding. Friday’s voice spoke in the video again, saying it’d take just a moment.

Peter looked over at Morgan, and was surprised to see her smiling widely. “What is it, Momo?”

“I know this. I remember this.”

Peter didn’t understand, because Morgan wasn’t in the video. Maybe she’d just watched this footage before.

_ “And don’t worry,” _ Tony said in the video,  _ “if it doesn’t pan out. I’m just kind of…” _

_ “Model rendered.” _

The hologram loaded for a moment, and then words appeared above it in big red letters: MODEL SUCCESSFUL.

Tony stood there, dumbstruck. He collapsed into the chair behind him, staring at the hologram in disbelief, like that word ‘successful’ hovering above it was a lie. He covered his mouth with his hand, and then held his arms out.  _ “Shit!” _

_ “Shit!” _

That last voice Peter recognised all too well. Tony looked off camera.  _ “What are you doing up, Little Miss?” _

_ “Shit.” _

_ “Nope, we don’t say that. Only Mommy says that word. She coined it, it belongs to her.” _

Peter couldn’t help but let out a little laugh at that. God, he missed Tony’s humor and his quick wit. He missed… he missed  _ him _ .

_ “Why are you up?” _ Morgan’s voice off-camera

_ “Because I’ve got some important shit to do! What do you think?” _ Tony in the video said, and Peter laughed again. So did Morgan, the real-life one sitting next to him.  _ “No, I got- I got something on my mind. I got something on my mind.” _

Morgan’s voice spoke again, but Peter didn’t hear what she said. Something adorable, judging by Tony’s smile in reaction. Tony then said something, but Peter didn’t hear that either. He wasn’t paying attention to their words anymore. He was staring at the hologram, trying to figure out what it was Tony was working on. It didn’t look like an upgrade to his Iron Man suit.

“Friday? What was Mr. Stark working on there?” Peter asked as the video ended.

“That was when Mr. Stark figured out how to successfully travel through time,” the AI said like it was nothing.

Peter blinked in absolute shock. Sure, Pepper told him he found out to travel through time, and that’s how they were able to travel back and get the Infinity Stones to bring everyone back to life. But… in one night? Tony solved time travel in one night? And he did it after… after he…

_ “I got something on my mind.” _ Tony’s words echoed in Peter’s head.

Peter. That’s who was on Tony’s mind. Tony had just looked at Peter in that picture in the kitchen, then went downstairs and  _ solved time travel _ , allowing the people that were dusted to come back to life.

Allowing Peter to come back to life.

“Peter? Are you ok?”

Peter didn’t realize he was hyperventilating until he heard Morgan ask him that. He felt her small hand on his arm. He was covering his mouth with his hands, breathing quickly and shallowly, staring blanking forward. Morgan’s voice brought him back into the moment. He whipped his head around to face her. “I-I-I… He… Morgan-”

“Peter, deep breaths,” Morgan said. “Deep breaths, like how Mommy said to do when you get like this.” She grabbed Peter’s hand.

Peter squeezed it back until his breathing was back to normal and he could think straight. Tony… Tony had solved time travel… because of  _ him _ .  _ He _ was the reason 50% of the population had come back to life.

Tony did it all for  _ him _ .

He couldn’t believe it. Tony really cared about him  _ that much _ .

“I-I… Wow…”

Morgan shook his shoulder. “Are you ok, Peter?”

“Y-Yeah, Morgan. Yeah. I’m, I’m ok.” He squeezed Morgan’s hand again. “I just… I really miss him. That’s all. He… he cared  _ so _ much… I just… I just really miss him. I just really miss your dad.”

“Why do you always say that?”

Peter blinked away his tears. “Say what?”

“You always refer to Daddy as  _ my _ dad. Why?”

Peter knew where this was going. “Well, what else would I call him?”

“You could just call him Dad.”

Peter was already crying from the video. If he thought about this sort of thing now, it was going to push the limits of his tear ducts.

“You’re my big brother. You can call him Dad. I even asked Mommy, and she said that if you ever called her ‘Mom’ and if you called him ‘Dad’, she’d be ok with it.”

Peter sniffed and held back a sob. “W-Wow. That’s uh, th-that’s really nice of her.”

Through all his overwhelming feelings at that moment, a thought suddenly entered his brain.

His birth parents.

He’d barely gotten the chance to know his birth parents. They died when he was 4 years old - the same age Morgan was right now. And now, he barely remembered his birth parents. He had a couple hazy memories, and that was it. He only remembered their faces from photos. He couldn’t even imagine what their voices sounded like. He’d have to find some old video to remember something like that.

Panic gripped Peter’s mind.

Did that mean… If Peter could barely remember his birth parents… Did that mean Morgan was barely going to remember Tony?

Would she only know him through hazy memories, photos, and videos?

Peter choked on another sob.

“What is it, Petey?” Morgan asked innocently, oblivious to the panic that ran through Peter’s brain.

Peter suddenly gripped Morgan’s shoulders. She tensed.

“Morgan,” Peter looked her in the eyes and said very seriously, “You have to listen to me right now, ok? Listen to what I have to say.”

Morgan nodded nervously.

“Everyday, you need to picture you’re dad’s face in your mind. Make sure you never forget it. Everyday, go through the memories you have of him and play them in your mind. Picture them as clearly as you can and play them over and over inside your head. Not memories that you have recorded on video like the ones on the holo-screens, memories that only  _ you _ know. Do it, for at least  _ one _ memory everyday. Please, you  _ have _ to, Morgan. You  _ have _ to remember him. I won’t let you forget him.”

“I-I won’t forget him, Peter,” Morgan said, sounding a little frightened, “I promise.”

“You promise you’ll memorize the memories you have of him? You promise you’ll play through them in your mind everyday?”

“I promise!” Morgan said with determination.

Peter loosened his grip on Morgan’s shoulder and dropped his hands to his sides. He let out a breath. Tears pricked his eyes again. “O-Ok. Ok, good.”

Morgan looked curious, but she decided to not ask Peter anything.

They watched another video on Tony on the holo-screen.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished writing this story out in full, and now I just need to edit it before I can publish the last few chapters. That means that I know there will be 9 chapters of this fic, and the next 2 chapters will be coming really soon! The next chapter is really long, so I hope that makes up for this one being kinda short. Hope you guys are liking my fic! Thank you so much for reading and leaving kudos! I love love love reading your nice comments so feel free to leave some!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Friday has something to show Peter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for over 100 kudus!! Here's a long chapter! It contains many feels. Hope you enjoy!!

Three months.

It had been three months since Tony died.

If one more person mentioned how he was Tony’s ‘son’, he wasn’t going to be able to hold back his tears. No, he would burst into ugly, wrenching sobs right in front of whoever mentioned it.

He thought he was recovering. He thought he was getting better. But apparently not. His sadness was like the ocean - sometimes the tide was low and sometimes it was high. And for the past few days it had been a really high tide. His sadness was a tidal wave, consuming him, drowning him.

God, he _missed_ him. He missed Tony so much.

He missed his dad.

Enough people - Morgan, Pepper, Rhodey, and plenty others - had told him that Peter was basically Tony’s son, or that Tony considered him as a son, and that he admitted it while Peter was dusted.

It made Peter want to _scream_.

He _knew_ it was selfish. That’s all this was - an absolutely selfish and unfair desire.

He _just_ wanted to have heard Tony say that to Peter himself. It didn’t feel real from other people. It would only feel really if _Tony_ had told him.

He could barely remember his biological father, and as much as a father-figure that Uncle Ben was, he was still Peter’s uncle, and Peter was his nephew. For as long as he could remember, Peter had never been called ‘son’ in his _life_.

And then he had Tony. Tony, who mentored him in everything from school to superhero-ing. Tony, who actually understood what Peter said when he talked about science and engineering, who helped him build his Spider-Man suit upgrades. Tony, who calmed him down from sensory overloads and nightmares and anxiety attacks. Tony, who had _considered him as his son_ , and who Peter _considered as his father_.

And they just… never told each other that.

Peter would never get to hear Tony call him ‘son’. He’d never get to hear Tony refer to Peter as his biological daughter’s ‘big brother’. He’d never get to see Tony smile as Peter called him ‘Dad’ like he _apparently_ would’ve been fine with.

Thoughts like this had been burrowing in Peter’s brain ever since Tony had died.

The only thing getting him through each day was Morgan.

He was her big brother. He had to watch over her. He had to be there for her, to love and cherish her - for Tony’s sake.

Peter and Morgan were having another sleepover that day. Pepper had a call-in meeting with Stark Industries shareholders from overseas. Because of time zones, the meeting had to be late at night, and she wouldn’t be home until one in the morning.

So Peter watched Morgan for the day.

He went to her house after school. He wasn’t in the happiest mood, but he forced on smiles for Morgan. He watched her play video games during the afternoon, then Peter warmed up the dinner that Pepper had left them. They ate, then watched TV until Morgan got sleepy. After around 4 whole episodes of Phineas and Ferb, Morgan’s eyelids started to droop. She leaned against Peter’s arm.

Peter turned to her. “You ready for bed, Momo?”

Morgan nodded sleepily.

Peter smiled and lifted her up, resting her on his hip. She clung to him.

“Friday, turn off the TV,” Peter said to the room, but the TV remained on. Peter shook his head. “Right, she’s only in the lab downstairs. I keep forgetting.” He grabbed the remote and turned the TV off himself.

He carried Morgan upstairs to her room. After he made sure her teeth were brushed, her face was washed, and all her other bedtime routine things were complete, he tucked her into bed.

“Can you sleep next to me?” Morgan immediately asked.

“Of course, Mo,” Peter said.

After he got ready for bed himself, he slid into the bed next to Morgan. She hugged him, and Peter hugged back.

“Can you tell me a bedtime story?”

“Sure. You got a certain one in mind?”

Morgan nodded, her face moving against her pillow. “Can you tell me the story of when Daddy saved the universe?”

Peter swallowed thickly. “You sure that’s the one you want, Momo?”

She nodded again.

Peter sighed. He’d hoped that the only time he’d have to tell Morgan that story was the first time he told her it. He didn’t even want to tell her it that first time, but then he thought that Morgan deserved to know. It was an amazing story - the fight against Thanos, Cap using Thor’s hammer, Captain Marvel arriving, Tony wielding the Infinity Stones - it was incredible.

If only it had a happy ending.

Sure, the villains die and the heroes win the battle, but they lost Tony. Sometimes Peter felt like none of it was worth it because in the end, they still lost Tony.

Peter took a deep breath and began to tell the story. “Ok, so, it all began when I suddenly woke up on Titan. Last thing I remember was turning into dust. But then Doctor Strange comes up to me shouting about how it’s been 5 years and that we needed to help the other Avengers fight Thanos. Then he started doing his yellow sparkly thing and opened up a portal…”

Peter continued to tell the awe-inspiring tale. Morgan listened silently, her sleepy eyes half-closed.

“…And then, I looked over and saw Thanos. It looked like he got the Infinity Stones back, and I was panicking. He was telling your dad that he’d always win in the end. He said, ‘I am inevitable,’ and snapped his fingers. I was so scared that I couldn’t breathe. My heart was beating so fast. But then nothing happened. And then Thanos looked at his gauntlet and it turns out the Infinity Stones weren’t on it.”

“And where were they?” Momo asked, fully knowing what the answer was.

The answer was sad, but Peter said it with pride. After all, despite the outcome, it was an amazing thing Tony did that day. “They were on your dad’s hand, stuck into his Iron Man gauntlet. All of a sudden, bright colors ran up his arm. He threw his head back, trying to not be overwhelmed by all the power the Stones held. But he wasn’t overwhelmed. He controlled that power like he was born to do it. He looked… He looked really cool. He looked like the most amazing, strongest, best person in the universe right then.” Peter remembered staring at his mentor in complete awe in that moment. If Tony had lived, that probably would’ve been one of his favorite memories. But Tony… didn’t live. Right after that awesome, inspiring moment was one of the most horrible moments in Peter’s life - watching Tony… watching Tony _die_.

Peter started to tear up a little, but continued to tell the story.

“H-He stared back at Thanos confidently and said back to him, ‘And I… am…Iron Man,” Peter spread out the words just like Tony had done so Morgan could know exactly how Tony said those important words. “Then he snapped his fingers. There was this flash of light, and just like that, Thanos and his entire army crumbled into dust.”

He hesitated, wanting to just end the story there.

“And then what?” Morgan said, fully knowing what happened next.

Peter let out a shaky breath. “Th-Then your dad sat against some rubble. Your Uncle Rhodey, your mom, and I were all by his side. Then…” he sniffed and his voice began to crack, “Then the arc reactor’s light flickered out. And his eyes…” Peter blinked back tears, “the lights in his eyes had gone out, too.”

Peter didn’t tell Morgan all the details of that moment - of what he said to Tony, of how Rhodey had to hold him back from collapsing into a mess of tears at Tony’s feet. He didn’t tell Morgan how Pepper held back her own tears until Tony’s eyes showed he was gone, and then she cried just as hard as Peter did. He didn’t tell Morgan any of that - of how horrifying and devastating that moment was. He probably never would be able to tell her.

Morgan and Peter were both silent after that.

“That’s a really sad story,” Peter finally said. “You want me to tell a happier one before you fall asleep?”

“No,” Morgan said. She sounded a bit sad, but she wasn’t crying. “It’s a really sad story, yeah, but it’s not really sad for a lot of other people. For my friends at school, that was the day half of their friends and family came back. That was the day the Decimation was reversed. It’s a happy day for them. And even though it makes me sad, there were still some things that happened that made me happy. It was the day _you_ came back.” She paused. “I just think about how happy everyone else is now, and how even if I’m really, _really_ sad, Daddy made everyone else in the whole universe happy, and Daddy would be happy that he did that.”

Peter sniffed. “Y-Yeah, he would be, wouldn’t he?” Peter hugged Morgan closer to him. “God, you are _so_ smart, Momo. You are so incredibly smart and amazing. Your dad would be so proud of you. I know he would.”

“Thanks, big brother,” Morgan said, snuggling against Peter. “And what did I say about calling him _my_ dad?”

Peter involuntarily let out a short, high-pitched whine - a precursor to full-out sobbing. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. “Y-Yeah, Mo. I know. I know.”

Then she let out a big yawn. “I’m tired.”

“Yeah, you need to go to sleep, Morgan.”

“Ok. Goodnight, big brother,” she then looked up at the ceiling. “Goodnight, Daddy.” She turned back to Peter.

“Goodnight, sis,” Peter said and planted a kiss on Morgan’s forehead. He then looked up at the ceiling like Morgan had. He took another deep breath. “Goodnight… Dad.”

He stayed lying on his back, looking up at the ceiling. Morgan cuddled against Peter’s side. Within minutes, she fell asleep.

Peter, however, did not.

Peter stayed awake. He couldn’t fall asleep - not after all that. Now he was all emotional and sad. He let tears slip from his eyes and down the sides of his face. His racked with silent sobs, not wanting to wake Morgan up.

He went on his phone to distract himself, but it wasn’t enough. After an hour, he was still awake. Morgan had turned onto her other side in her sleep, moving away from him. Peter took the opportunity to leave her bed and head down to the lab.

He opened the door and Friday greeted him. “Hello, Peter. You’re up late.”

“Couldn’t sleep,” was all Peter said. He then sat down at the worktable and began to work on his Spider-Man suit.

Oh god, this is _just_ what Tony used to do, wasn’t it? He wouldn’t be able to sleep, so he’d go to his lab and work on his suit.

Tears clouded Peter’s vision, but he blinked them away. He pushed through the sad thoughts in his mind and tried to focus on his suit upgrades.

It was a pretty good distraction.

He worked for a while in silence, then another thought popped into his head.

“Hey Friday?”

“Yes, Peter?”

“Do you… miss him?”

“I assume you’re talking about Boss?”

“Yeah.”

Friday didn’t respond right away. When she did speak again, her voice sounded like nothing Peter had ever heard it sound before. “…Yes. I do miss him. A lot.”

Peter sighed. He didn’t know whether to be even more sad or to fanboy over how Friday was able to feel complex human emotions. God, Tony was able to build an A.I. that felt _complex human emotions_. Even though the man was gone, Peter continued to be amazed by him.

“Yeah, me too,” was all he said in response, continuing to screw in something on his suit.

Another stretch of silence.

“Did…” Peter began again, “Did he ever… talk about me? To you? While I was gone?”

Again, Friday didn’t answer straight away, contemplating her answer. “Yes, he did.”

“What did he say?”

“He said… a lot of things,” Friday said, clearly not quite knowing _how_ to put her words. “He talked about how he missed you a lot, and he wanted you to meet Morgan, and…”

Peter looked at the ceiling. “And what, Friday?”

Friday hesitated. “Peter, there’s something I think you should see.”

Peter’s stomach lurched at the ominous words. “W-What?”

“As you know, I can see everything on your phone,” the A.I. continued, “including the audio recordings that your therapist assigned you to make.”

Peter’s face blushed a little in embarrassment. No one was supposed to know about those except for him and his therapist, Sheryl. “Um… Yeah… Do you know what I say in them?”

“Yes.”

Peter sucked in a breath, getting very nervous. What was Friday trying to tell him?

“But what’s on your recordings isn’t what I’m interested in.”

Peter perked his head up at that.

“No, it’s just…” If an A.I. could sigh, Friday definitely would have. “Peter, you’re aware that Boss had the same therapist when you were presumed dead, right?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Well, she asked him to record messages for you, just like how you’re doing for him.”

Peter froze.

“He only ever made one,” Friday continued. “But… it’s still in my files. I… I think you should see it. It’s a message for _you_ , after all.”

Peter’s hand was over his mouth. Tears were beginning to cloud his vision again. He… he was going to hear Tony speak to _him_ … speak directly to _him_ again. Tony was going to tell him all the things he regretted never telling Peter.

Maybe… Maybe he’d say…

Peter shook his head. He didn’t want to get his hopes up.

“Would you like me to play it, Peter?”

Peter’s voice was barely a whisper. “Yes.”

“Now playing the file titled _‘A Message for Peter’_ , dated August 10th, 2018.”

He heard the familiar beeps and whistles of Tony’s tech. He saw a blue light in the corner of his eye and turned away from the workbench to face it. The hologram projector had turned on, and in the next moment, a life-sized blue hologram of Tony Stark appeared before Peter’s eyes. The man was sitting in a chair, just like he had been in the last holo-message he’d left before going on his final mission. However, in this hologram, he looked much, much sadder. He stared at the floor and didn’t speak yet.

Peter couldn’t help it. He let the tears fall from his eyes, hiccuping a sob every so often, as he stared at Tony. “M-Mr. Stark…” Peter couldn’t help but whisper, even though he knew Tony couldn’t hear him.

Hologram Tony finally did something. He sighed, looked up from the floor, and made direct eye contact with Peter. The boy’s breath hitched. The expression on Tony’s face completely shattered Peter’s heart.

“Hey kid,” Tony said, and Peter burst into tears. “My therapist - yeah, I uh, I got a therapist. Or more, Pepper got me one. She assured me that it’ll definitely help me. I, um, I kinda had no choice. Nothing else… nothing else was helping me.” He cleared his throat. “So uh, yeah, anyway, I have this therapist, and she said that I should record messages for you, and say anything I feel like I wanna tell you.”

Peter listened intently.

“I tried to record a few before this, but I felt ridiculous just talking to no one and stopped like 10 seconds into them. But today…” Tony took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, “today’s your birthday, and I was really thinking about you, and I thought ‘fuck it, I’m gonna record one of those things Sheryl’s telling me to make. Maybe it’ll stop all the pain from constricting my in my chest.’”

Tony paused again, and Peter tried to sob quieter because he didn’t want to miss a word of what Tony said. But it was difficult. Peter’s body shook with his cries. Tony was _talking to him_.

“What to say, what to say…” Tony contemplated to himself, looking up at the ceiling. He looked back at Peter as he thought of something. “So uh, I was trapped in space for like, a month. That was… an adventure.”

Peter heard about that, but he didn’t know much about it. Only that Captain Marvel rescued Tony.

“It was just me and this girl Nebula. She was pretty cool - blue and confused about normal human interaction, but cool. She grew on me. She visits me and Pep in the cabin now and then. So does Natasha. Oh, yeah, and I live in this nice cabin on a lake now. Off the grid - mostly. It’s quiet… peaceful, I guess you could say.”

Tony took another deep breath. Peter held his.

“Ok, I’m gonna stop… delaying the inevitable emotional breakdown that this is going to cause me.” Tony leaned forward in his chair, looking even more directly at Peter. “I can’t shake the image of you… of you _dying_ in my arms. When I was in space, my dreams were either about Pepper and how much I missed her, or they were about that moment. And now that I’m back on Earth with Pepper, my dreams - no, my _nightmares_ \- they’re always about you, and that moment.”

Tony put his head in his hands, covering his face. He swore and rubbed his eyes before looking back up, his eyes here shiny with tears. Peter had never seen Tony cry.

“I can still,” Tony sniffed, “I can still feel your ashes falling through my fingers.” He sniffed again and tried to hold back his tears. “I can still hear your voice pleading for me to help you. I-I, I’m so sorry-” That was the breaking point. A tear escaped Tony’s eye, and soon many more joined it and flowed down his face. “I-I’m sorry that I couldn’t do anything to save you! I’m sorry that I failed you! I’m sorry that I never got that gaunlet off that stupid asshole’s hand!”

And Tony cried. Tony outright sobbed, just as Peter had been doing for months. Peter was stunned. He covered his mouth in shock. He’d never seen Tony like this.

Tony was crying, _weeping_ over _him_ \- over _Peter_.

Tony’s sobs turned into a weak laugh. “I know I always say things are my fault, but God, this _really_ feels like my fault. Everything’s always my fault.”

Peter shook his head. “N-No, M-Mr. Stark,” He didn’t care if Tony wouldn’t actually hear him, he felt like he needed to respond. “It wasn’t your fault. None of this was your-”

“I thought we would have so much more time together,” Tony spoke again, and Peter quickly shut up, wanting to hear what he said. “I mean, why would I not think that, right? I just, I thought I’d have more time to get to _say_ things to you. There are so many things I want to tell you. I- I mean, I guess that’s what this message is for, isn’t it? To tell you those things?”

Peter held his breath.

“While I was in space, I had a lot of time to think about things. And I realized something, Peter. No- No, I knew it already, I just didn’t want to admit it to myself to tell you yet, because I was too fucking scared and emotionally repressed. I just…”

Tony looked up at the ceiling again and took another deep breath. Then another. He finally looked back at Peter.

“You’re like a son to me, Peter.”

Peter _lost it_. He was crying so hard that he could barely see. His whole body was shaking.

“No, you know what, fuck that, you _are_ my son, Peter,” Tony was crying again. “Or at least, you _were_ .” Tony covered his eyes and _wept_ , his voice getting a little high-pitched and shaky. It was almost unrecognizable as Tony’s voice. “God, my _son_. I lost my son. My boy.”

Peter’s mind was so confused with emotions - overwhelming happiness that he’d heard Tony say those words, paired with overwhelming sadness and devastation that Tony was _dead_. Tony, who called him his _son_ , was _dead_.

His _father_ was _dead_.

After a whole minute of Tony just crying, he rubbed his eyes and spoke again, his voice still soaked with so much emotion. “S-Since today’s your birthday, I was thinking about what we would’ve done, i-if you were here. I would’ve gotten you gifts and cake and all that. And you would’ve smiled your perfect smile, and you’d probably want to watch Star Wars or something.” Tony let out a weak laugh that quickly turned back into sobs. “God, I miss you. It’s been _months_ and I still miss you _so_ much, kid.”

Peter whispered through his own tears. “I-I m-miss you, too, Mr. Stark. I-I, I miss you too, D-Dad.”

“I’m sorry I never told you,” Tony said, voice still high and shaky. “I’m sorry I never told you just how much you mean to me. I was, I was scared. I’ll admit that now. I was scared I’d mess you up. You were so _perfect_ , Pete. You were so much better than I was at your age. I didn’t want to accidentally ruin you. My father, he… wasn’t good. He wasn’t very good at all, to say the least. I thought… I thought if I told you that you were like a son to me, I’d eventually mess you up the way _he_ messed _me_ up. I dunno. It’s stupid. It’s all stupid. I should’ve told you. There are a million things I should’ve told you.”

Tony then took another minute to calm down. And Peter took the time to do the same. He took deep breaths as the hologram of Tony did as well.

Tony then looked back into Peter’s eyes. When he spoke, his voice was still raw from crying, but it had returned to its normal pitch. “Another thing that’s kind of important to tell you - Pepper’s pregnant. I had my suspicions before _all_ this, and it turns out I was right. When I got home from space, Pepper told me that she was pregnant with my baby.” Tony sniffed. “I was so overjoyed and heartbroken at the same time, kid. I had just lost you. I would’ve wanted you to meet her. And yes, she’s a her. We’re going to name her Morgan.”

Tony took a breath.

“I’ve been back home from space for many months now. Pepper’s around 6 months pregnant, and I can already tell you that I’m gonna love that kid. I’m gonna love her and treat her better than my father ever treated me. _You_ showed me that I could do that, Pete. _You_ showed me that I could take care of a kid and not ruin them.” Tony sniffed again, the tears threatening to come back. “When she’s born, I’m gonna tell her all about you. I’m gonna tell her that you’re her big brother. You were my _son_ after all. That’d make you her big brother.”

Peter choked on a sob.

“I’m gonna love that kid so much, for your sake, Peter.” Tony broke again. His voice became shaky and high again as tears spilled down his face. “I love _you_ , Peter. I l-love you such much. I’m sorry- I’m so sorry that I never t-told you that. God, I’m so sorry.”

Peter burst into tears all over again.

“I love you, son. I love you so, so much, son. I miss you so much. I hope that, wherever you are now, you know that I love you, and that you’re like a son to me.”

Peter nodded frantically, his tears flying. “I-I know, I know. I know that.”

Tony cried for a bit longer, then took a deep breath. He waved his hand. “Ok, Fri. End it. Stop the recording.”

The blue hologram faded away, and Tony was gone.

Peter wiped the never-ending tears from his eyes, but it was useless. He kept sobbing.

Friday’s voice filled the room. “Should I… not have shown you that, Peter? You are in quite some distress-”

“N-No! No, Friday, _thank you_ _!_  Thank you so much for showing me that! Thank you so much!” He let out a particularly loud sob. He shakily got to his feet and walked as quickly as he could over to the stairway.

“Where are you going, Peter?”

“I-I, I have to get my phone. I have to- I have to do something.”

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this!! The next chapter is the last chapter and is really short, because it's Peter's final audio log. Hope you like it! Please remember to leave kudos and comments!!


	9. [peters-log-3.mp3]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A final audio file found on Peter's StarkPhone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final audio file! Thank you all so much for reading! Hope you enjoy!

_ [start of audio recording] _

_ [the sound of Peter sobbing comes in immediately, cut off at the beginning like he was crying before the recording started] _

_ [the crying goes on for 6 seconds before Peter speaks - his voice is very wet and broken] _

“M-Mr. Stark…”  _ [sniff] _ “M-Mr. Stark… I-I found y-your”  _ [sniff] _ “your message…”

_ [sobbing and deep breathes] _

“I mean, I should’ve known… Sheryl was your therapist too. Of course she made you make a message to me. Y-You thought… you thought I was dead…”

_ [sobs] _

“I love you too, Mr. Stark!”  _ [sobs] _ “I love you too! I love you and I miss you too! I miss you so much…”

_ [sobs] _

_ [sobbing eventually calms down a little - when Peter speaks again, his voice is a whisper] _

“I um…”  _ [sniff] _ “You called me son. Y-You…”  _ [sniff] _ “You called me son. I h-heard you… you called me… It wasn’t exactly in person but i-it was still… still your voice… talking to  _ me _ …”

_ [quiet crying] _

“I love you too, Dad.”  _ [sniff] _ “I love you too, Dad. I love you so much. I miss you, too.”

_ [quiet crying] _

_ [Peter’s voice, even quieter] _ “If only you could actually hear this message… like how I got to hear yours...”

_ [sniffs] _

_ [muffled, high-pitched voice] _

_ [Peter’s voice, still shaky, a bit far away sounding] _ “M-Morgan! I’m sorry, did I wake you up? Y-Yeah, I’m fine, I just-”

_ [end of audio recording] _

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so most for reading my fic!!!! I hope you guys all liked it (even if it made you cry lol). Please remember to leave kudos! And I LOVE reading your nice comments so please feel free to leave them!!
> 
> Now, do you want to read something happier? Something that's NOT endgame-compliant? Something where Tony Stark is ALIVE and well? Then you're in luck! Because I finally published the first chapter of my happy irondad spider-son fic!!! If you'd like to read it, you can [click here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18991933/chapters/45097897)!

**Author's Note:**

> ([Also here's my Tumblr if you're interested](https://starprincepunk.tumblr.com). You can message me any Irondad and Spiderson one shot fic prompts there if you want and I’ll try to write them if I have the time!!)
> 
> (And if you wanna read my other Irondad and Spiderson fics while you wait for this one to update, they’re all [right here!](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1421887))


End file.
